Ingrammar, anoblique (abbreviatedOBL; fromLatin:casus obliquus) orobjective case (abbr.OBJ) is a nominalcase other than thenominative case and, sometimes, thevocative.

A noun or pronoun in the oblique case can generally appear in any role except assubject, for which thenominative case is used.^[1] The termobjective case is generally preferred by modernEnglish grammarians, where it supplantedOld English'sdative andaccusative.^[2][3]When the two terms are contrasted, they differ in the ability of a word in the oblique case to function as apossessive attributive; whether English has an oblique rather than an objective case then depends on how "proper" orwidespread one considers the dialects where such usage is employed.

An oblique case often contrasts with anunmarked case, as in English obliquehim andthem versus nominativehe andthey. However, the termoblique is also used for languages without a nominative case, such asergative–absolutive languages; in theNorthwest Caucasian languages, for example, the oblique-case marker serves to mark theergative, dative, andapplicative case roles, contrasting with theabsolutive case, which is unmarked.

Hindustani (Hindi andUrdu)nouns,pronouns andpostpositions decline for an oblique case which exclusively serves to mark the grammatical case roles using the case-marking postpositions.^[4][5][6][7] The oblique case has similarities with thevocative case in Hindustani. Some examples of the declension pattern are shown in the tables below:^[8]

Bulgarian, ananalyticSlavic language, also has an oblique case form forpronouns:

Dative role:

• "Give that ballto me" дай тaзи топка на мен (day tazi topka na men)

(This oblique case is a relic of the original, more complexproto-Slavic system of noun cases, and there are remnants of other cases in Bulgarian, such as thevocative case ofdirect address)

An objective case is marked on theEnglish personal pronouns and as such serves the role of the accusative and dative cases that other Indo-European languages employ. These forms are often calledobject pronouns. They serve a variety of grammatical functions which they would not in languages that differentiate the two. An example using first person singular objective pronounme:

• in anaccusative role for a direct object (includingdouble object andoblique ditransitives):

Do you seeme?

The army sentme to Korea.

• in adative role for an indirect object:

Kim passed the pancakesto me.

Kim passedme the pancakes.

• as theobject of a preposition (except in possessives):

That picture ofme was blurry.

(cf. double genitive as inThat picture of mine was stolen.)

• incopulardeixis:

[referring to a photograph]This isme on the beach.

• inexistentials (sometimes, but not always, replaceable by the nominative—in very formal style):^[9]

It'sme again.

(cf. Once again, it is I. [formal])

Who is it?—It'sme.

(cf. It is I[to whom you are speaking].)

It'sme who should fix it.

(cf. Since I made it, it is I who should fix it.)

• in a nominative role with predicate or verbalellipsis:

Who made this bicycle?—Me.

(cf. Who made this bicycle?—I did.)

I like him.—Hey,me too.

(cf. I like him.—Hey, I do too.)

Who's gonna clean up this mess?—Notme!

• incoordinated nominals:

Me and him are going to the store. (only in colloquial speech)

(cf. Is he going? Yes, he and I are going.)

• as adisjunctive topic marker:

Me, I like French.

The pronounme is notinflected differently in any of these uses; it is used for all grammatical relationships except thegenitive case of possession (in standard English) and a non-disjunctivenominative case as the subject.

• It may also be used as a comedic stylistic effect of blatant error (nonstandard,pidgin,baby or foreigner talk or "broken English"):

[spoken byCookie Monster]Me so hungry.

(the above example also employs copula deletion to similar effect)

Old French had a nominative case and an oblique case, calledcas sujet andcas régime respectively.

In Modern French, the two cases have mostly merged and thecas régime has survived as the sole form for the majority of nouns. For example, the word "conte (count, earl)":

• Old French:
  • Nominative: licuens (singular), liconte (plural)
  • Oblique: leconte (singular), lescontes (plural)
• Modern French:
  • leconte (singular), lescontes (plural)

In some cases, both thecas sujet andcas régime of one noun have survived but produced two nouns in Modern French with different meanings. For example, today'scopain means "friend" andcompagnon means "companion", but in Old French these were different declensions of the same noun.

Kurdish has an oblique for pronouns, objects, and for objects ofizafe constructs.

• Object pronoun, which in English take the oblique case
• Oblique argument
• Object (grammar)
• Subject pronoun
• Disjunctive pronoun
• Quirky subject

• Grammatical cases

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing Latin-language text